First there was Huawei, now we have TikTok

Tensions between the United States and China are rising over a deepening row regarding the Chinese video sharing and social networking service, TikTok.

Washington has given federal agencies an ultimatum to remove and disallow installation of the application on devices operated by their staff.

The deadline is set to comply with an order issued by Congress.

The ban does not apply to businesses which are not associated with the federal government or to the millions of private citizens; however there are now whispers of a complete ban for all citizens.

• The United States has joined Canada and the European Union in imposing a ban TikTok.
  

  US, EU, Canada impose ban on TikTok

  The United States has joined Canada and the European Union in imposing a ban on TikTok.

The American Civil Liberties Union has warned that such a ban would mean stripping citizens of their constitutional rights to freedom of expression. The White House had already banned TikTok on its devices

That tick tock, you know, poses a problem and an issue. And so we have concerns about that as it relates to American data, collecting American data, and the potential national security risk, and we've been very, very clear on that.

Karine Jean-Pierrre, White House Press Secretary

Following the US move Canada also announced that it was banning TikTok from all government issued mobile devices.

• US lawmakers approve measures to grant the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app that is used by more than 100 million Americans.
  

  US House empowers Biden to ban TikTok and other Chinese businesses

  The US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to give President Joe Biden the power to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

The European Parliament has also banned TikTok from staff devices; the Chinese video sharing app is now barred in all three of the EU's main institutions.

Last week, the European Commission announced that it was banning TikTok from official devices. The European Commissioner said the decision to ban TikTok applies only to devices overseen by the EU's executive branch.

The US and its Western allies have cited cybersecurity concerns and accused the Chinese government of using the application for spying purposes.

China says the United States is abusing state power to impose bans on the Chinese owned video application, TikTok.

The application is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.

It has become a political target due to the concern that the application could be used for spying or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.

Both Beijing and ByteDance strongly reject the allegation.

• China says the United States is abusing state power to impose bans on the Chinese-owned video app TikTok.
  

  China: US abusing state power with TikTok bans

  China says the United States is abusing state power to impose bans on the Chinese-owned video app TikTok.

We firmly oppose the US sides wrong approach of overstretching the concept of national security, abusing national power, and, unreasonably suppressing the companies of other countries.

The US government should effectively respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop suppressing the relevant companies and provide an open, fair, and non discriminatory environment for companies of all countries to invest and operate in the US.

Mao Ning, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson

• Twitter CEO Elon Musk has accused the US government of pushing all social media platforms to work with the US government to censor content.
  

  Social media platforms censor content at behest of US government

  Twitter CEO Elon Musk has accused the US government of pushing all social media platforms to work with the US government to censor content.

US restrictions against TikTok come at a time when the US regime itself stands accused of using social media platforms for spying purposes on its own citizens as well as people in other parts of the world. Just recently, the Twitter files revealed a secret alliance between Silicon Valley, intelligence agencies, and the political establishment.

I believe the US is doing this, and Twitter, even though they promised to shut down all state backed influence operations, have worked hand in glove with the US military, giving them special privileges for their fake Twitter accounts, these fake personalities that kind of make organic looking conversations in Yemen or Syria or Iraq, promoting US narratives in the region and working with them ... and Twitter was well aware of what was going on and did not shut these accounts down for many years.

Some of them were suspended earlier this year. But this has gone on for three, four or five years.

Lee Fang, Investigative Journalist

• An investigation has shed light on the complicity of social media giant Twitter in US military propaganda in the West Asia region.
  

  Twitter propaganda tool of US Central Command

  An investigation has shed light on the complicity of social media giant Twitter in the propaganda of the US military in the West Asia region.

The Twitter files indicate that it was the FBI, the DHS and the CIA that were aggressively and clandestinely seeking to influence American public opinion. Furthermore, Twitter has helped the US military to amplify its propaganda campaigns in the West Asia region, allowing fake accounts to push pro US narratives.

Twitter secretly created a special white-list exempting accounts run by US Central Command, CENTCOM, from spam and abuse flags.

The leaked documents and emails show that senior Twitter executives were well aware of the Pentagon's vast network of fake accounts, COVID propaganda etc.  yet did not suspend the accounts.

• The US has banned the sale and import of new communications equipment from five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, citing security concerns for the decision.
  

  US bans Chinese telecom firms over 'security concerns'

  The US has banned the sale and import of new communications equipment from five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE.

Earlier last year, it was revealed that the US government had made efforts to influence cyberspace in the country through a cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.

The US government's reportedly pressured social media platforms to "shape online discourse".

There are now concerns that officials in the department for Homeland Security have greater influence to make politically motivated determinations about what constitutes dangerous speech.

Critics say the extent to which the DHS initiatives affect America's daily social media feeds is unclear.

•  Twitter has been accused of hiding major security flaws and lying to customers and officials for years about its attempts to fix its leaky security of user data.
  

  Twitter covered up fake accounts and security flaws, says US whistleblower

  A former Twitter security chief accuses the American social network of misleading US regulators over its cyber security defenses and fake accounts.

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